In an interview today with Jaron Lanier (about Internet 2 and virtual
reality, a term he created), I found out that he is collaborating with
Terry Riley on an opera, the two of them writing both text and music,
although they are looking for the "right librettist."

To be called "Bastard I," the full-length work will tell the story of
a future emperor of America, the illegitimate son of a rock musician.
No commission yet exists for the work, Lanier and Riley are working on
it "in a startup mode."

Riley's idiom is known, Lanier (whose contribution to the soundtrack of
"Three Seasons" was excellent) describes his own current sound as based on
"chords out of tuning systems, combined chords from multiple, incompatible
scales."

Meanwhile, Lanier's "Navigator Tree" will be performed in Berkeley and San
Francisco during the Handbell Ensemble Sonos' 10th anniversary "Sounds of
a New World" concerts May 20-21, June 3-4.

The point of "Tree," Lanier says, is that "you can be multicultural without
losing sight of excellence, without becoming lost in a swamp of pure
relativity." Okey-doke!

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